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Anita Sarma and Jim Herbsleb
Software development is a collaborative effort that requires close coordination among different stake holders (e.g., developers, managers, testers, clients). However, past studies have shown that a vast majority of developers do not communicate congruently, i.e., their communication networks do not match the pattern of dependencies in their tasks. This mismatch can then increase development time and seems likely to increase software errors and to reduce efficiency. To help reduce the gaps between the coordination requirements and current coordination patters, our project consists of two steps: First, it involves the computation of coordination requirements – who must coordinate with whom in order to accomplish particular development tasks – from project artifacts. Second, it investigates different visualization mechanisms to present coordination requirements to developers and managers to create an awareness of coordination needs and provide them the ability to monitor the degree of congruence between coordination needs and actual communication. For more information contact Jim Herbsleb. |